Craig’s List: are the photos on IsAnybodyDown.com culled from unsuspecting Craigslist posters?

It appears that Craig, Chance, or one really enthusiastic fan is gathering a large majority of IsAnybodyDown.com’s content by emailing posters in the Craigslist personals section, pretending to be a potential hook-up while gathering pictures and personal information. While certainly not all of the pictures on the site are gathered this way, many — perhaps most — are.

Here’s how we know it’s likely Craig, Chance, or a single enthusiastic fan are culling their content from unsuspecting Craigslist posters:

Update: the smoking gun? Craig forgot to redact two of the emails women sent in response to Craigslist posts — and both were sent to Craig’s email addresses, both submit@isanybodydown.com and 1@719x.com (Craig’s old domain).

Most damning: an email exchange posted by IsAnybodyDown in which the site’s operator responds to a complaint that the picture was stolen: “it’s not, sucker… you sent it to me“ and “i have all of the other emails you guys sent me too.” The IsAnybodyDown post includes the original Craigslist ad.

Posted throughout the site are screenshots of emails from people including their own phone numbers — emails which have almost universally the same format. The screenshots suggest that the text around the phone numbers was removed to deter discovery (by the victim) of who the emails were sent to, and the text of the phone numbers is often in a format indicating it was sent from a victim (e.g., pink text). [Update: 11/13/12: The format of the email screenshots has a peculiar text format: the text following ‘from’ and ‘to’ is slightly higher than ‘from’ and ‘to’. This format is identical to that of DreamMail. In this screenshot, taken by the site owners, DreamMail lurks in the background.] Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Update: Craig’s IP is now being used to edit the Wikipedia article about his site, adding this: “The website is a spin-off of the concept behind the now defunct IsAnyoneUp?, where the primary difference between the two websites is that the majority of people posted were using the Craigslist ‘Casual Encounters’ message board.” He’s also trying to delete the article (and references to Marc Randazza and Ken White) on the basis that “Article is being used to defame and harass an owner. Article must be deleted immediately. The posters of the article are currently being investigated.”

It’s clear that almost nobody on IsAnybodyDown.com wants to be pictured there. If those pictured there consented to it, why would Craig and Chance concoct a fake lawyer to deceive people into sending money to get their own pictures removed?

If the complaints on the site weren’t enough to demonstrate Craig Brittain and Chance Trahon’s awareness that the people pictured there really don’t want to be pictured there, the emails they received and then freely shared as a boastful warning to others are damning:

Finally, there’s this very helpful (and now deleted) advice about what to do if you got posted: change your Facebook settings so that nobody can contact you ever, change your phone number, and talk to Craig and Chance if you feel lonely. It goes on to suggest that you not make legal threats and don’t contact law enforcement because you could go to jail for lying to them. Again, why would this advice be necessary if people consented to this?

Finally, one question: Craig notes (correctly, I’ve unfortunately discovered) that he, himself, has had his own nude photos plastered on the internet. If Craig ‘consented’, why don’t his own nude photos appear on his own site? Why doesn’t Chance summon up the courage to do to himself what he does to others?

Because they don’t want to — just like the people whose pictures were usurped don’t want to.

15 comments

Maybe his team of lawyers is busy maintaining a prudent silence while they prepare his case.

Or, maybe he hasn’t yet found one that won’t tell him to “STFU STFU STFU Even when they are wrong and you are right you are just making it worse!”. I sympathize with those stuck with a client who continues to actively undermine one’s best attempts on their behalf.

One thing I’ve learned in years of assisting with investigations: Counsel often makes a fantastic firewall. But like any firewall, it has to be properly configured. Configuration of a Counsel Firewall consists largely of doing what they tell you.

What profit? Where/how are they making money, other than Takedown Hammer? Its not like the site is riddled with advertisements. In fact, as the screen shots show, the only other advert on the site is “who is Kadishin?” (and it doesn’t take a genius to know that’s Chance)

[…] phone numbers, hometowns, and Facebook profiles of about 700 people. The photos are posted without their consent and are purportedly submitted by jealous ex-paramours, but appear to be culled by the site’s […]

[…] the material users submit. As I’ve documented extensively, they’re going out and getting much of it themselves by deceiving unsuspecting Craigslist posters. Additionally, rather than creating an automated system to publish user-submitted content, […]

[…] — likely because Craig, Chance, or an enthusiastic fan get the photos by responding to unsuspecting Craigslist posters. Note also that Craig admits that the photos are of people who sent them to […]

18 USC § 875 – Interstate communications
(d) Whoever, with intent to extort from any person, firm, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee or of another or the reputation of a deceased person or any threat to accuse the addressee or any other person of a crime, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Unless evidence emerges that the site’s proprietors were sending threats to the people pictured, I doubt there’s a case for extortion. The site is extortionary in that its business model makes money by purposefully harming people, but it’s not extortion per se.

[…] part of his bizarre claim that people somehow consent to being pictured on his site. There is substantial evidence that Craig (or someone else) responds to Craigslist personals ads, then posts the pictures. If […]

[…] Springs, was likely getting photos for his site by responding to Craigslist personals ads. I theorized this on the basis that most of the posts on IsAnybodyDown are tagged ‘craigslist’ and from […]

[…] information found on revenge porn websites to contact the people photographed offline. Women have lost their jobs and received threats of being gang raped because of the posts. When nothing has been effective at […]